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BOULDER — Bunny Kehoe admits that years ago, she worried that her daughter, Danielle, might be a little out of control with her passion for triathlons.

"She was watching Ironmans on television and she'd be like, 'I'm going to do that one day,' " Bunny recalled. "I'm thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, please, no.' "

Bunny could not have been more proud Sunday as she stood at the finish line and watched Danielle become an Ironman champion.

Bursting with energy and excitement as she crossed the finish line, Danielle won the women's professional race at the first Boulder Ironman Triathlon, staged not far from where she grew up in Arvada.

"It's very surreal," Kehoe, 27, said through the smile painted on her face. "I'm over-elated. I don't know. It's a dream come true."

A 2005 graduate of Holy Family High School, Kehoe had been pointing to Sunday for nearly 20 years.

Kehoe competed in her first triathlon at age 7. Throughout high school, she was a key member of the Holy Family track and cross country teams, but her passion was triathlons.

In 2011, she began piling up age-group victories. Among those was a first-place finish for the 20-24 women's group at Ironman St. George (Utah) on May 7, 2011. That was her first Ironman event.

In 2012, she competed in six events and won her age group every time.

She turned pro at the end of the 2012 season and produced three top-five finishes last year.

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Sunday, she finished the 140.6-mile course in 9 hours, 19 minutes, 54 seconds. She defeated runner-up Laura Bennett by 24:05 — even though she was the fifth pro out of the water and the last pro out of the swim-to-bike transition.

"I'm not a faster swimmer, but I make it up somehow," Kehoe said.

Coming out of the water nearly 10 minutes behind Bennett, Kehoe made up ground on her bike. She finished the 112-mile bike course in 4 hours, 53 minutes — cutting 6:30 off Bennett's lead.

Bennett continued to lead for the first 12 miles of the marathon, then began to struggle. Kehoe finished the marathon in 3:16:42.

At the end, Kehoe couldn't wait to shift her focus to her fiancé, Jeff Mack, who competed in his first Ironman on Sunday.

For Kehoe, it was fitting that the run course took the triathletes through Boulder's Eben G. Fine Park, where he proposed to her.

Two years ago, Kehoe had the best year of her career.

Yet, with her first pro victory now on her résumé and her November wedding on the horizon, 2014 is going to be a tough year to top.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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